Most road users underestimate the risk to safety due to icy or foggy car windows in winter. Many are not aware of how easy it is to eliminate this risk by using a parking heater. The Traffic Accident Research department at the Technical University of Dresden studied 9406 car accidents involving personal injury over seven years (Jan. 1, 2005 – Dec. 31, 2011). Nine percent of these accidents occurred at temperatures below freezing. Especially in this temperature range, parking heaters provide not only a significant increase in comfort, but can also make a major contribution to road safety. For example, significant visual obstructions due to icy or fogged windows occurred in 2.3 percent of the accidents at freezing temperatures. The study comes to a clear conclusion: More than half of these accidents would most likely have been avoided by using a parking heater.
Parking heaters ensure higher road safety in winter
Parking heaters provide not only pleasantly warm air inside the vehicle, but also make an important contribution to road safety – especially in winter. Many road users start their journey after having insufficiently removed snow and ice from their windows, particularly in the morning rush. Therefore, they often overlook particularly pedestrians and cyclists because these are moving at the edge of the driver’s field of view. Especially schoolchildren often walk or ride their bikes, and are thus subject to a particularly high risk. With a parking heater, on the other hand, drivers already have clear windows at the beginning of their journey, thereby lowering the risk of getting into an accident. This has been shown by the study.
